Good reads

My Rodney Curtis books came today! Actually, they could have arrived yesterday but I just discovered them this morning. Saw the box on the porch when I went to look out the front window and check progress on the church parking lot while I was brushing my teeth and the coffee was brewing. (I wanted to be sure I wasn't hallucinating last night with the noisy truck and the workmen and such.)

Getting new books to read is like Christmas morning!

Just in time, too, as I've been polishing off each stack as soon as I get 'em.

One of my nieces recently loaned me her copy of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas for a reading group I was invited to join. That was a quick read, and I look forward to discussing it. Maybe I'll Netflix the movie before we meet.

Last weekend at the church yard sale Lizz and I picked up a few titles, including Naked Came the Manatee and The Freedom Writers Diary. Gobbled those right up.

Burp.

I'm getting quite the collection of blogger books. As you can see above there, Claudette is reading Margaret Mason's (Mighty Girl) book No One Cares What You Had for Lunch. Netty gave me that because she knew I had been struggling with writers block. Then I had a Barnes & Noble gift card from my birthday plus found a $10 gift card under my bed (!) and decided to treat myself to The Pioneer Woman Cooks - and while I was on the BN site decided to add on Heather Armstrong's (Dooce) two books: Things I Learned About My Dad in Therapy (read that on Fathers Day) and It Sucked and Then I Cried.

When those books arrived I inhaled them like oxygen. Or really awesome dark chocolate. Pretty much the same thing.

Paint house? What house?

Then I loaned my four blogger books to Misty, so they're probably with her in Kentucky right now. I can see her reading them on the long drive in between bouts of singing "Wheels on the Bus" to her toddler ... and pointing out Big Butter Jesus to her husband. (Hey - I just read the Wiki link on BBJ and I'm pretty sure he would have been sculpted from expanded polystyrene and not extruded polystyrene - STYROFOAM).

I am just giddy with anticipation for the rest of my books to arrive, because do you think I could have just ordered one copy of Spiritual Wanderer the other day? Oh no. First of all, I justified the purchase (because I really do not buy books that often, recent evidence to the contrary; my IV drip is hooked up to the public library right down the street) because it was for a good cause. And I knew I'd spend at least
$25 so I could get the free super saver shipping deal. There were a couple of other books I wanted but they were from other sellers so I ended up buying three copies of Spiritual Wanderer AND a handful of books by Mike Yaconelli - some which I used to own but loaned out long ago - and a few new ones. Easy to justify those purchases - I'm investing in youth ministry for heaven's sake! I love that you can get great, slightly used or even brand new books for little more than the cost of shipping. Seriously - one of the books I ordered was $.01. One was $.15. Shipping for each was $3.99. Crazy. I remember reading Messy Spirituality and Dangerous Wonder years ago and had been wanting to read them again plus some other Yaconelli titles. But oddly, our library system doesn't carry them. Mike Yaconelli was key to my own faith development and I'm eager to share him with others. I think I discovered him either just before or just after he was killed in a truck accident in 2003. But because of the ministries he began and an abundance of printed and digital content, his legacy lives on.

Clearly, I have eclectic reading tastes. I love good writing in general. I also love good trashy chick lit. Ooh - and suspenseful spy thrillers. And all sorts of others. And yes, I do find time to read the Bible. The book. Now there's a topic for another day ...

Well, I sure have rattled on long enough. Do you have some favorite reads to share? Who are your favorite authors? Whose writing inspires and/or influences you the most?